Chinatown Festival

by gigi on August 22, 2007

Jenkins and I went to a festival in Chinatown a couple of weeks ago. I should have written it up sooner so that it was more timely, but I’ve been having internet connection problems. Hopefully, this will give you a good idea of what was there so you can check it out next year.

The booths and stalls that were there were similar to the Chinatown and Richmond Night Markets…except it was during the day. Even the canopy signs said “Chinatown Night Market”! We got there at around 11 in the morning and it was already filled with people.

Jenkins and I went to the festival on empty stomachs and were ready to try the snacks that were there. Most items were around $2.50 so it was easy to try several different things.

We started with some pan-fried soy sauce rice rolls. These were freshly made when you ordered them. There was a generous sprinkle of sesame seeds, which I liked. This cost $2.75.

We decided to check out the stall next door, which looked extremely busy. Things looked promising.

Everything looked so good at this stall that we wanted to try everything! But we settled on some siu mai (pork dumplings) and deep-fried stinky tofu.

I found the siu mai to be a bit mushy and flavourless. At $2.50, this wasn’t really worth it, especially since we only got four pieces.

On the other hand, the stinky tofu was fabulous. For $2.50, we got a heaping plate of stinky tofu, sprinkled with some special sauce. It also came with a side of pickled cabbage and carrots. Yum! For those of you who are apprehensive about stinky tofu, it is at its smelliest before it gets cooked or fried. After that, the smell is barely even noticeable.

The festival itself took up a relatively small area on the streets near the Sun Yat Sen gardens. There were some clothing stands and other stalls that sold electornics and gadgets. But we were there mainly for the food so did not investigate the other stalls too much. The festival wasn’t enough to make up a full-day event, but was a fun stop if you were in the neighborhood.